Grade 1 Telling Time word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

Grade 1 Telling Time word search, scramble and crossword puzzle

I made this long vowels puzzle set for my 2nd graders during our phonics unit. The kids knew their short vowel sounds but kept mixing up the long vowel patterns—especially when the same vowel sound could be spelled in different ways (like "boat," "row," and "toe"). They also couldn't remember all the ways to spell the long "a" sound. So I put together a word search, a word scramble, and a crossword using words with long vowel sounds in different patterns, like long a with "cake, name, play, snail"; long e with "be, see, tree, key"; long i with "bike, fly, tie"; long o with "boat, no, bone"; and long u with "cube, cute, music". I also threw in a few like "meat" and "feet" to cover the long e with "ea" and "ee" . Nothing fancy — just puzzles to help the vowel patterns finally stick.

The PDF is four pages. Three puzzles plus one answer key page. The word search works well for quiet time after recess or independent practice. The scramble gets them talking because they argue about the spelling of "snail" or whether "no" and "boat" have the same long o sound (they do, but the kids always have opinions about it) . The crossword I use for partners or as a review, and I usually have a long vowel chart on the wall for the kids who need the visual support to see the patterns . I added a couple simple cake, bike, and boat drawings but nothing too busy.

Works for 2nd through 3rd grade. Print and go. Sometimes I have early finishers write a sentence using three long vowel words from the puzzle on the back. The kids actually ask for these now.